drag queen

noun

plural drag queens
: a person and especially a man who performs as an entertainer in usually female drag (see drag entry 3 sense 2a)
Drag queens, who are traditionally male, dress in "drag" as female characters.Laura Wavra
For the past decade, (basically since RuPaul started Drag Race) traditional drag queens (ie, cis men performing as female characters) have been blowing up in the popular zeitgeist …Brittany Knupper
Drag is not simply female impersonation, but involves drag queens exaggerating femininity and drag kings exaggerating masculinity.Shannon Kelly
[Victoria] Sin is a female-bodied non-binary drag queen, examining how Western ideals of femininity are produced and consumed.Amrou Al-Kadhi
They are a black, non-binary drag queen with a beard in a part of the country that has a reputation for being anti-LGBTQ+.Bailey Shelton

Examples of drag queen in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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With a whopping 18 drag queens competing for the crown and another chance at being inducted into the winner’s circle, All Stars has changed the way viewers watch the competition once again. Braedon Montgomery, Forbes.com, 29 May 2025 Led by the popular drag queen and environmentalist Pattie Gonia, the group climbed El Capitan with a giant pastel pink, sky blue and white transgender pride flag and displayed it across the cliff face early Tuesday, May 20. Brooke Baitinger, Sacbee.com, 21 May 2025 The coalition, operating under the project name Trans is Natural, was led by drag queen and musical artist Pattie Gonia, the persona of LGBTQIA+ activist Wyn Wiley. Greta Cross, USA Today, 21 May 2025 When the first Eurovision contest was held, in May 1956, founder Marcel Bezençon couldn’t have imagined his soon-to-be wildly famous Pan-European song competition would one day give us the likes of dancing grannies, rapping astronauts, and the almighty Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serduchka. Nick Allen, Vulture, 13 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for drag queen

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1941, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of drag queen was circa 1941

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Cite this Entry

“Drag queen.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drag%20queen. Accessed 5 Jun. 2025.

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